The Natural Capital Value of the Seagrass Posidonia oceanica in the North-Western Mediterranean

Posidonia oceanica is an endemic Mediterranean seagrass used as a ‘biological quality element’ in monitoring programmes of the EU Water Framework Directive, providing information about coastal ecosystems status. The regression of P. oceanica meadows caused a growing interest among policy makers to assess the value of seagrasses and to increase their protection. An evaluation of P. oceanica meadows located in the Ligurian-Provençal basin (NW Mediterranean) through a biophysical approach is here developed. Six meadows located in Liguria (Italy) and Corsica (France) were investigated by applying the emergy analysis to assess the natural capital (NC) stocked by leaves and rhizomes components. Results highlighted the importance of carrying out an analysis of the variations in the NC value in both components: rhizomes defined the growth stage and the capacity to store NC over time; leaves provided information on the variability due to disturbances in the water column. Emergy analysis allows defining the NC, in terms of resources needed to maintain the meadows and to provide services to coastal communities. This research is inserted into the effort of incorporating the NC evaluation into marine planning and decision making to achieve nature conservation goals, while ensuring the sustainable exploitation of marine resources.

Passport to the oceans of the future: delivering marine energy with science linked to policy

In February 2021, a group from MASTS, Environmental Interactions of Marine Renewables (EIMR) and Marine Scotland began exploring options for a joint event on marine energy science and policy development. The original concept was to bridge the gap between events that each group would normally arrange ‘in person’ and the virtual world in which we were all currently existing. Encouraged by the online support and experience available from MASTS, a steering group decided to arrange a workshop. In order to straddle our interests, the starting point was the capacity of the North Sea to deliver renewable energy. We wanted to include emerging science and the timing of the review of Scotland’s National Marine Plan provided an excellent context. We sought to deliver a wide range of content but encourage participant conversation. We aimed for a range of speakers delivering 7-minute recorded talks. Talks included findings from funded research, ongoing projects, and some emerging thinking across the science policy interface for marine planning. Marine energy was interpreted in the widest of senses, but the main focus was on offshore wind in UK waters, with particular detail about Scotland.

Tourism-Based Alternative Livelihoods for Small Island Communities Transitioning towards a Blue Economy

Tourism development has been promoted as an alternative livelihood to reduce the dependence of small island communities on declining marine resources. It is often central to emerging agendas around marine planning and the blue economy. However, relatively little is known about how communities perceive tourism development as an alternative and potentially sustainable livelihood in their area and its implications. This qualitative study tracks a governance system in transition and analyzes the factors perceived by stakeholders to be driving and hindering the adoption of tourism-based livelihoods on small islands in UNESCO’s Taka Bonerate Kepulauan Selayar Biosphere Reserve (Indonesia). The findings indicate that, despite a series of tourism-enhancing investments and initiatives and the positive attitudes of local communities towards it, tourism is not a direct route towards sustainability for small island communities. The benefits of tourism are perceived to be unequally distributed. The lack of education and skills limits participation in new job opportunities, and the incentives to continue destructive fishing inhibits livelihood transition to tourism. The article concludes that tourism cannot be assumed to generate simultaneous benefits for conservation and development without more equitable benefit sharing, the meeting of basic needs in communities, and addressing the drivers of unsustainable livelihoods.

Coastal Marine Planning: Vision of the Maritime Authority. Case of the Department of Bolivar, Colombia

Marine Spatial Planning is a tool that has acquired significant importance worldwide. Around 70 countries have implemented this initiative given the increased activity within the maritime sector and pressure on marine resources. The methods used are adapted to each country’s characteristics and articulated with other management processes. Although Colombia has progressed through on the processes regarding this issue, through different agencies, marine spatial planning related to maritime activities is absent. Therefore, the General Maritime Directorate (DIMAR in Spanish) through its commitment to turning Colombia into a bi-oceanic power, under a holistic and comprehensive maritime safety approach, contributes to marine and coastal areas management with a methodology for Marine and Coastal Management with a Maritime Authority Vision (MCM: MAV), focused on analyzed current and future conditions using Geographic Information Systems (GIS), multi-criteria analysis, and an Allocation and Co-location Model (ACM). The method was applied to Bolivar Department marine and coastal area, resulting in the identification of 55 uses/activities, and obtaining zoning by index and by the number of conflicts, as well as a map of free areas. This information is intended to improve monitoring, evaluation, and updating of maritime activities in these areas, and because it is applicable throughout the Colombian territory, it facilitates decision-making by several national governmental agencies.

Indigenous Environmental Justice within Marine Ecosystems: A Systematic Review of the Literature on Indigenous Peoples’ Involvement in Marine Governance and Management

We develop and apply a systematic review methodology to identify and understand how the peer-reviewed literature characterises Indigenous peoples’ involvement in marine governance and management approaches in terms of equity and justice worldwide. We reviewed the peer-reviewed English-language research articles between January 2015 and September 2020 for examples of Indigenous peoples’ involvement in marine governance and management using the analytical lens of environmental justice. The majority of research studies highlighted that Indigenous peoples experienced some form of environmental injustice linked to existing marine governance and management, most notably in the context of inequitable decision-making procedures surrounding the establishment and operation of marine protected areas. However, there are significant gaps in the current literature, including a notable absence of studies exploring Indigenous women and other gender minorities’ involvement in marine planning and management and the limited number of studies about Indigenous peoples living throughout Asia, the Arctic, Russia, and Africa. More studies are needed to explore collaborative and intersectional approaches, including co-governance and co-management and ecosystem-based management, and critically evaluate what constitutes inclusive, equitable, and just marine governance and management processes, practices, and outcomes for different Indigenous peoples occupying diverse social–ecological systems.

Marine spatial planning: Coordinating divergent marine interests

Globally, ecosystem-based marine spatial planning has become a useful instrument to coordinate the planning of different authorities. This, for balancing different requirements when managing marine areas and space. In the planning process, ecology is setting limits to which human activities are acceptable to the society. The use of the marine environment can be planned similarly as the land environment. We argue that there are several aspects which must be taken into consideration. Marine activities have traditionally been planned and managed in a sectoral way. Today, it has become obvious that a more holistic, multi-sectoral and coordinated approach is needed in future successful marine planning and management. The increased awareness of the importance of the oceans and seas challenges the traditional sector division and geographical limits in marine policy and calls for better coordinated and coherent marine policies.